"He was cheap wasn't he? Free transfer! He was free," Mourinho said with a wry smile. "So for that price he's fantastic.

"I think everybody thinks the same in this country. Everyone has to agree that he is a fantastic player and the team that got him has a plus.

"We have a good group of attacking players you could see today we played with three of them, [Jesse] Lingard was on the bench, [Romelu] Lukaku was on the bench, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] at home, [Anthony] Martial at home. So we have a good group.

"His [Sanchez] quality is a plus and his experience is another plus."

The Manchester United boss also insisted no one was at fault after Sanchez missed a drugs test Monday.

Mourinho said: "I think Arsenal were very honest in the way they approached the situation.

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"We all know we must tell the whereabouts of our players where they are 24 hours per day [clubs have to tell testers if players miss training and the players must give their location for one hour every day]. But I think everyone understands that no-one knew where he was going to be, where he was going to train, where he was going to sleep.

"It was just a period of transfer so I think it is easily understandable and that was no-one's mistake and just a consequence of the moment."